Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of violating U.S. sanctions over his work with pictured Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. File Photo by Anatoli Zhdanov/UPI |
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Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A retired high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official has pleaded guilty to working with a sanctioned Russian oligarch he had investigated when he was still a federal agent.
Charles McGonigal, a former special agent in charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Unit in New York, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Power Act and to commit money laundering. If convicted he could face up to five years' imprisonment.
The charges stem from his work with Oleg Deripaska, once considered Russia's richest person and who was sanctioned by the United States in 2018 in connection to the Kremlin's 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
McGonigal served in the FBI from 1996 until 2018 when he retired. During his tenure, he worked in Russian counterintelligence and organized crime matters, and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including that of Deripaska.
Prosecutors said that starting in 2021, McGonigal violated those sanctions by providing services to Deripaska, specifically agreeing to investigate a rival Russian oligarch.
The allegations then accused McGonigal of working with Deripaska's agent to conceal Deripaska's involvement by not referring to him by name and by using shell companies in the contract that outlined the services the retired FBI agent performed. The shell companies were also used to pay McGonigal, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Deripaska paid a law firm $175,000 a month, with $25,000 to go to McGonigal, who was hired by the firm as a consultant and investigator.
McGonigal -- who is to be sentenced Dec. 14 in the case -- is facing further charges in connection to his alleged receipt of $225,000 in cash while still employed by the FBI from a person with business dealings in Europe and who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service.
"Charles McGonigal broke his oath to defend the Constitution and turned his back on his duty to protect the American people in favor of his own greed by working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch," Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division said Tuesday in a statement.
"Every day, the men and women of the FBI protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. No matter the perpetrator, even if it's one of our own, the FBI will go to great lengths to investigate individuals who put their own interests above U.S. national security," Turner added.
